A
12-month survey of Javan tigers and their prey in Meru Betiri National
Park in eastern Java was completed in 2000 by PKA authorities. Meru
Betiri represents habitat in which some of the last reports of the supposedly
extinct Javan tiger have emanated. More recent sightings by park staff
and local people have lead to the re-emergence of the possibility that
the Javan tiger still exists. To finally put the rumors to rest, twelve
national park personnel were trained in 1999, and 20 cameras purchased.
Operations in this park were initiated following a direct request from
the chief of the park, Bapak Indra Arinal, and were supported by the
Director of Conservation of Flora and Wildife, Bapak Ir. Koes Saparjadi.
The Tiger Foundation also donated 15 infrared cameras to the park in
order to facilitate future census efforts.

The
most appropriate contribution that the Sumatran Tiger Project could
make was identified as training in relevant tiger monitoring and census
techniques to the park staff. Since remote camera monitoring was considered
to be the most appropriate method available, considerable attention
was paid to developing technical knowledge in this discipline, as well
as other essential field tools such as the GPS receiver and computer
based mapping of field observations. Activities included class-based
theoretical workshops, field application and a final field orientation
to install remote cameras at preliminary sites. The results of this
census: no tigers, few prey, and lots of poachers.

Photo
from: A. Hoogerwerf's Udjung Kulon: The Land of the last Javan
Rhinoceros. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. 1970. This photo
of a Javan tiger is all we have left of a subspecies of tiger which
has become extinct in the fairly recent past.